Rs. 9,192 crore is needed to provide an additional 25 days of work under the 125-day employment scheme, and the Rs. 100 crore allocated by the government will be of no use, said PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss.
In a statement issued by him in this regard, "The Tamil Nadu government has ordered the allocation of Rs. 100 crore to provide an additional 25 days of work under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which provides 125 days of work per year for rural people.
Although the government's goal of providing 150 days of work per year is correct, the funds allocated for it are not sufficient to achieve the government's objective.

In Tamil Nadu, if we come to power, the number of days of employment provided to rural people under the employment guarantee scheme will be increased to 150, the TVK election manifesto had promised. Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, only 100 days of work were being provided per year. The Central Government, after making some changes to the scheme, has announced and implemented the provision of 125 days of work per year. In order to provide an additional 25 days of work, the Tamil Nadu government has now allocated Rs. 100 crore.
Developed India
But the question is: can additional 25 days of work be provided with this fund? Under the Viksit Bharat & Rural Employment & Livelihood Guarantee Scheme, 81.08 lakh families in Tamil Nadu have registered to get work. Of them, 69.11 lakh families are continuing to receive work. Under the employment guarantee scheme, a wage of Rs. 271.38 is paid per person per day. In addition, Rs. 208.64 per person-day is spent on materials required to implement the scheme and wages for the staff skilled in implementing it, and Rs. 53 per person-day is spent on administrative expenses. Including these, the Central and State governments together have to spend Rs. 532.02 per person per day.

Cannot provide work even for a single day
In Tamil Nadu, a total of 69.11 lakh families are to be provided work under this scheme, and to provide work to all of them, Rs. 367.68 crore would be needed per day. In addition, since the Tamil Nadu government itself provides 25 days of employment, the state government will have to bear all the expenses for that as well. At the rate of Rs. 367.68 crore per day, at least Rs. 9,192 crore would be required to provide work for 25 days. However, the Rs. 100 crore allocated by the Tamil Nadu government is only 1.08 percent of the required funds. With this amount, not even a single day of work can be provided to the beneficiaries of the rural employment guarantee scheme.
This employment is not enough to alleviate poverty
The Developed India & Rural Employment & Livelihood Assurance Scheme has been implemented in Tamil Nadu since July 1. Since then, as of yesterday, 112 days have been completed, and so far work has been provided for only a total of 5.32 crore person-days.
In Tamil Nadu, the state government has said that under this scheme, only 38.08 lakh families have so far been provided with an average of 13.37 days of work. Apart from them, the remaining 31.10 lakh families have not been given even a single day of work so far. If they are also taken into account, then under this scheme an average of only 7.69 days of work has been provided per family. This level of employment is nowhere near enough to alleviate the poverty prevailing in rural Tamil Nadu.

Adequate financial allocation
The main reason for the inability to provide people with adequate work under the rural employment scheme is the shortage of funds. The central government provides the major share of the funding for this scheme. Under this scheme, while the wages for providing work and other expenses are increasing, the central government’s allocation for it has been declining year after year. From 2021-22 to 2024-25, the average number of days of work provided was 50.95, 50.96, 59.44, and 46.86 respectively, and the reason this number fell to 25 days last year was the inadequate allocation of funds.
This year, the central government’s funding allocation method has been changed. Until last year, the central government fully covered the wages paid to workers under this scheme, but this year it is providing only 60%. For the 125-day employment guarantee scheme, the central government has allocated Rs. 7,957.57 crore to Tamil Nadu, while the Tamil Nadu government has allocated Rs. 5,305.04 crore as its 40% share. This funding is not sufficient to provide jobs to the people.

150 days of work
Providing 150 days of work per year to the people of Tamil Nadu is a big dream. Since making that happen immediately is difficult, the Tamil Nadu government should come forward this year to provide at least 75 days of work in total—60 days with the Central government’s contribution and 15 days from the State government’s funds. To provide 60 days of work with the Central government’s contribution, Rs. 22,060 crore would be needed, and for the State government to independently provide 15 days of work, Rs. 5,515 crore would be required. The Tamil Nadu government should take steps to negotiate and secure the Central government’s contribution for this, and also increase the State government’s contribution,” he said.
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